Please can someone help me? I bought my hubby a Nikon D3100 for Christmas. What lens do we need to get to take detailed photos of something, say, a mile away? I have read so many different websites in the last few days and they all seem to confuse me! I'm hoping someone will take pity on a complete newbie to "decent" photography and give me a rough pointer! Thank you in advance, and sorry for being a complete numpty about this!

Please can someone help me? I bought my hubby a Nikon D3100 for Christmas. What lens do we need to get to take detailed photos of something, say, a mile away?

Generally speaking, you're not going to take a detailed photo of something a mile away. So, can you get more specific about what types of photos your husband will be taking from a distance? Did you get a lens included with the camera or just the body without any lens at all?

He wants to take photos of various sports and wildlife. The only reason I said a mile was through my internet trawling I found some demo photos of a barn that in the "non-zoom" picture you couldn't see at all, but in the final one you could see doors and windows etc. The camera came with a 18 - 55mm f/3.5 -5.6G VR and we have since bought an AF70 - 300 mm F/4 - 5.6 (have to admit that means nothing to me!). I was under the impression that the 300mm bit meant it would pick things out from a distance. Thank you for helping!

Ok, now we're getting somewhere. There are a number of lenses that CAN be used for sports or wildlife. But, the bad news is - that type of shooting can get VERY expensive.
Let's start with the sports side of things:

What specific sports does he want to shoot?

What level of play for each sport (6 year olds playing soccer is very different than world cup)

Where will he be when shooting? This matters. If you're shooting HS varsity football from the stands shots will be poor regardless of gear. So, for each sport he wants to shoot - where does he have access to shoot from?

For outdoor sports, please specify if it's daytime, nighttime or both - this makes a difference. Again, taking photos of soccer during good light is very different than photos of soccer under lights.

What are his expectations of quality - facebook or making photos to sell to people?

We can go through a similar set of questions for the wildlife, but let's start with answers to the above - that will help us identify what equipment is required and give you some options.

Thank you for your patience!! Right, its basically village cricket and village football(soccer), so in the daylight and from the sidelines. His aims are to have some nice pictures to hang on our walls and possible give away, not planning on selling them. As for the wildlife, again not for sale. He would like to be able to take photos of things like swans on the local river, birds in trees that are too high up to be on a level with, we often get deer the other side of the field to us and it would be nice to be able to photograph them, and general outdoor shots of the unusual.

What kind of a budget? The Tamron 70-300 DI VC lens ($450 USD) is probably the best low-budget option. It has surprisingly good image quality - the big down side is the focus motor isn't all that fast. The Nikon 70-300 is a tad less sharp but faster AF for around $550 USD (not sure where you live so not sure what prices are like there). Of course we can talk about more expensive options, but you quickly get over $1,000. Probably the bust prosumer option is the Sigma 50-500 (aka Bigma) - sells for around $1500. But, that 500mm will be of huge benefit for the long distances on a football pitch or for the little birds up in the trees. It's a heavy lens so monopod for sports / tripod for birding is recommended.

Nikon D3100 is a feature-rich, very simple to use camera that can teach you more info on the art of photography through the smart step-by-step guide mode. Whether you are capturing a delicately composed still life, daily snapshots or full HD movies, the D3100 produces pictures with exceptional detail and brilliant colours even in dimly lit settings.